"Alone at the Show"

Concerts are often misconstrued as highly social events when, in reality, they can be some of the loneliest places for solo concertgoers—places where misfits coexist without ever mingling. Secret crushes develop across the room; thoughts fester inside your brain. Before you know it, your inner-dialogue starts to sound a lot like the lyrics to Los Angeles punk duo Girlpool's latest song, "Alone at the Show".

An ode to showgoer singledom, "Alone at the Show" is a quick thought bubble of unrequited love that clocks in at under two minutes (even shorter than their usualanthems), punctuated by candid lines like "I wanna look at you/ But you don't want me to/ I've got a secret crush on you." The song appears on The Le Sigh's terrific Vol. II compilation and features sparse instrumentation of steady bass, fuzzed-out guitar riffs and plunking keys, which further perpetuate the idea of isolation among the masses. But when Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker intensify their vocals and holler "Alone at the show!" in unison, we're quickly reminded that maybe we're not as alone as we thought.